Ch 65 The Guy in Green

With bullets flying all around him, Logan increased the density of his skin more than the normal he did to exorcise his Martian ability. After all, he wasn't sure what kind of ammunition the shooter was using. Normal magazines for an assault rifle were 30 rounds and he should be reaching that very soon. As soon as there was a pause in his firing after what Logan assumed was the end of his magazine, he bolted out confident he could take or dodge any rounds the shooter had remaining. Moving as quickly as he could, Logan saw the guy hesitate a second and that was all the time he needed.

Logan spoke out, "I really don't like being set up like that!" after grabbing the arm that held the rifle. Logan twisted his forearm until he felt the shooter's elbow pop out of the socket and then he pulled with a sharp tug to remove his right shoulder from his socket. Logan had to give it to this guy, he was kind of tough. He screamed out with pain at what Logan did to his right arm, but his left hand still went for a knife at his belt. As soon as Logan saw that, he caught his hand and squeezed it until he heard several fingers break.

He still would not drop the knife, so Logan decided to break his upper arm (Humerus) and then one of his forearm bones, specifically the Ulna. He left the Radius just in case he pissed me off some more. The gunman finally passed out, so Logan quickly stripped him of any rounds he could find and threw them into the water Logan could see from the roof.

Logan checked the sky windows to ensure the children were not being threatened and was relieved to see the guards had actually taken a protective formation around them instead. This did however raise his suspicion that this was not as cut and dry as a simple case of kidnapping possible metahumans. Logan did a quick reach out with his mind and felt Devilgirl approaching. He filled her in with what he had seen so far and suggested she stand by just in case. After all, Logan had no secret identity to hide if he was caught like she did.

Logan used the Red to change into a tabby cat form as he heard a couple of people rushing up to the roof from an access door. Once they burst through the door looking for the person responsible for attacking one of their own, Logan darted down the stairs they had come up. The dexterity and burst speed of a cat was much more significant than Logan had thought initially. He suddenly realized he had gotten so lost in using big and fancy animal forms to push through most obstacles that he was ignoring so many more subtle uses. Logan honestly felt like he was not using his powers to their fullest, just using them to react to situations. Continuing to act like that would be a waste of potential and definitely reduce any future growth.

Logan felt a bit like Medoriya Izuku from My Hero Academia; because he had so many years as a normal human, he felt like his powers were something he had to force around or let in, and then after using he shut himself off from it. Ironically, it was the current case that broke him loose from the box he was making around himself. Metahumans did not have the ability to shut off their powers at will, they were genetic and his were as well. [I think I had better bury this line of thought for now and look at it again after my current task.] Logan could almost feel his mind slipping away from a revelation, but he just could not stop and ponder it right now. Logan cursed his timing and started to skulk around the warehouse to learn what he could about this situation.

From what Logan could gather, there were 13 kids and 7 men in the building. Count the one out for his brittle bone and loose joint episode, and he needed to take down the other 6 without permanent damage while making sure the kids would not get caught in the crossfire. Going by the standard tactics, with the two men who went to the roof to check on the guy that set him up. The most likely scenario was that they would bring the unconscious guy down for whatever medical attention they could and then return to the roof to stay in over watch. But before returning to the roof, they would sweep the warehouse to see if the intruder was still present. Logan decided to wait by the stairway to the roof and wait for them to come down. His reasoning was that at least one of them would be occupied with their wounded comrade and would hesitate a few precious seconds before reacting to the ambush.

Knowing it was time for some brute force, Logan waited until they came through the door then changed into a gorilla and grabbed one guy and slammed his head into the wall knocking him out. The other guy was stuck in the indecision of dropping his comrade or grabbing his gun and luckily that meant he did not even think about alerting the rest of the guys in the warehouse. Logan reached out and slammed him into the wall as well and knocked him out. He dropped his comrade from the roof and that caused him to start stirring. Logan bounced his head off the concrete floor to knock him back out, still a little pissed he tried a frame job, Logan wasn't as gentle with him as the others.

4 left. Now Logan needed to pull at least one more away from the kids, but if they were trained at all, he should get two more. Trying to think of a sound that would alert them enough to look into but not something that would scare them, Logan came up with the idea of a dog. He shifted into a Beagle shape, their bark wasn't as threatening as a bigger dog like a pit bull or a German shepherd and it being distinct would be a good touch.

Logan barked a couple of times and made sure to add the howl at the end of the bark that any dog owner knows is a beagle. Logan heard "You two go check it out, shoot anything that moves including that dog if you see it." Logan then turned back into his small cat form to move around easier and waited for the ones that were sent out to look around. Once Logan saw them, he circled around and got behind them, turning Gorilla again Logan slammed their heads together knocking them out.

He checked on them and finally moved them next to their knocked-out partners, then he went for the last two guys. This time, Logan moved to a dark corner and changed into an owl so he could get up in the rafters. Logan had the weird feeling he was being watched, and he wondered if Devilgirl ignored him and was trying to play backup in case he needed it. Logan reached out with his mind for her, but she wasn't nearby. All he felt was the two guards below him, as well as the 13 kids. Making a note of the feeling, Logan decided to take care of the guards and then investigate.

Logan used the owl's silent flying ability to get above the heads of the two remaining guards as they got together to discuss options and changed into my gorilla form. As Logan was falling to the floor, he reached out and slammed the guard's heads together and quickly changed to his human form, so he didn't scare the kids.

Logan spoke calmly and softly to not s are them, "Hey kids, it's ok. I'm not here to hurt you, some friends told me you had gone missing, and I came looking for you. Is everyone ok?"

One of the kids who looked about 10 years old spoke up. "Why are you hurting them? They said they were taking us to a place where we could learn and make the weird things I do stop."

"What weird thing could you do? I can change my shape." Logan was trying to be friendly and changed to the Beagle form and back to show them he had abilities too.

The Kid answered, "When I get happy, I can glow. But it only works sometimes."

"Did these guys tell you where you were going? Did they treat you ok or like you were a bother?"

"They were ok, the guy in green said we would learn to do good things for the world. Would people not make fun of us anymore if we did what they said?"

"Guy in green?"

Another kid answered his question, "Yeah the one behind you with one of his sticks pointed at you."

"That would be me kid, names Clint Archer." The Green Arrow said.